Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, Floyd Cramer grew up in the small town of Huttig, Arkansas, teaching himself to play the piano. After finishing high school, he returned to Shreveport, where he worked as a pianist for the Louisiana Hayride radio show. In 1953, he cut his first single, Dancin Diane, backed with Little Brown Jug, for the local Abbott label. He then toured with an emerging talent who would later figure significantly in his career, Elvis Presley. Cramer moved to Nashville in 1955 where the use of piano accompanists in country music was growing in popularity. By the next year he was, in his words, in day and night doing sessions.” Before long, he was one of the busiest studio musicians in the industry, playing piano for stars such as Elvis Presley, Brenda Lee, Patsy Cline, The Browns, Jim Reeves, Eddy Arnold, Roy Orbison, Don Gibson, and the Everly Brothers, among others. It was Cramers piano playing, for instance, on Presleys first national hit, Heartbreak Hotel. However, Cramer remained strictly a session player, a virtual unknown to anyone outside the music industry. Cramer had released records under his own name since the early 1950s, and became well known following the release of Last Date, a 45 rpm single, in 1960. The instrumental piece exhibited a relatively new concept for piano playing known as the slip note style. The record went to number two on the Billboard Hot 100 pop music chart, sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Interestingly, the song was kept out of the No. 1 position by Elvis Presleys Are You Lonesome Tonight By the mid-1960s, Cramer had become a respected performer, making numerous record albums and touring with guitar maestro Chet Atkins and saxophonist Boots Randolph; also performing with them as a member of the Million Dollar Band. Over the years, Cramer continued to balance session work with his own albums. Many of these featured standards or popular hits of the era and from 1965 to 1974 he annually recorded a disc of the years biggest hits prefaced Class of . . . Other long-players included I Remember Hank Williams (1962), Floyd Cramer Plays the Monkees (1967), Looking For Mr Goodbar (1968) and Sounds of Sunday (1971). In 1977 Floyd Cramer and the Keyboard Kick Band was released, on which he played eight different keyboard instruments. Happy Birthday Floyd, you were without doubt one of the finest to ever lay hands of the ebony and the ivory. We miss you greatly Sir. Sadly it was New Years Eve, December 31, 1997 at the age of 64 that The Great Floyd Crammer and life had their.......
Posted on: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 14:19:08 +0000
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